Restaurant and Bakery Consulting

Monday, May 4, 2015

On Sunday, April the 12th, R and I went by Sap’s on Burnet Road. I
needed to drop off some Thai chile seedlings I was growing for him:
yellow-fruited, and orange-fruited. I had found the seeds from a rare seed
dealer and couldn't resist ordering some, figuring that if I spread the plants
around, folks could harvest dried seeds from mature fruit, and we’d all have
plenty of seeds for the foreseeable future. The orange gets a little larger
than the yellow, and both of them are excellent in Thai cooking, and are especially
delectable when made into Thai sriracha sauce (vastly superior to that crass, unrefined Rooster brand crap). Aside from the seed delivery, I had a
hankering to stuff myself on some authentic Thai food, and Sap’s is my favorite
spot for that.

Thai orange chiles (photo from etsy)

R is a bit of a wuss when it comes to eating really hot food, so when we dine
together, I tend to moderate my chile intake somewhat, spicing my plate to taste. She knew she wanted
“that green bean dish”, which could have been the green bean salad I love so
much, but more likely, S-P31, Amazing Green Beans, which I like to get with
ground pork. It is essentially a hybrid Thai-Chinese stir fry, with garlic and
shallot, chunky pieces of jalapeño chile, crunchy green beans (or long beans in
Thailand), and a protein of choice. The sauce gets some chicken stock and fish
sauce, and is anchored by fermented bean paste, which gives it an umami boost. The
mixture gets some Thai basil right towards the end to add some herbal punch. It’s
one of my favorite dishes at Sap’s.

Amazing green beans with ground pork

The main attraction of the meal was S-P50, or Sap’s Special Massaman Curry with
Beef. Depending on who you believe, massaman (or mussaman) curry originated in
the 1600s in the court of Ayutthaya, with the original curry developing from a
Thai adaptation of a dish introduced by Persian merchant Sheik Ahmad Qomi.
Another theory has the dish being introduced into Southern Thailand from
Malaysia, by way of India, and that its name derives from the Malay word masam, which means “sour” (although the
dish in its present manifestation is not a sour curry by any stretch of the
imagination). There is little doubt that the dish was Muslim in origin, and the
ingredients that form the curry paste are not typical Thai curry spices,
including cardamom, cinnamon, clove, star anise, cumin, bay, nutmeg, and mace.
These combinations of flavors were brought to the Malay Peninsula by Muslim
traders from the Middle East, India, and the Indonesian archipelago. Later on,
Dutch, Portuguese, and French East Indian traders imported the spices. As it
slipped across the southern Thai-Malaysian border heading north, the Thais
combined that spice profile with dried chile peppers, white peppercorns,
coriander, lemongrass, galangal, shallot, garlic, shrimp paste, and sometimes
turmeric to develop the flavors of the curry paste. This paste gets fried with
the separated oil from coconut cream until fragrant, and then the meat is
added. Thais typically cook the dish with beef, since pork is forbidden (haram)
for Muslims. It can also be made with chicken, duck, mutton, or goat. Once the
meat has braised with the paste to develop flavor, potatoes, onions, fish
sauce, tamarind, palm sugar, coconut milk, and peanuts (or cashews) are added.
It is a dish eaten with rice or with roti (a crepe-like South Asian flatbread
made from wheat flour), and a bowl of massaman tastes best eaten the next day,
once the potatoes have absorbed the flavors of the curry.

Sap's Special Massaman with beef

Sap's Special Massaman Curry is made with slowly braised chuck steak that's so
tender that it melts in your mouth (I cut mine with my spoon), and instead of
using white potatoes, he substitutes Yukon Gold potatoes. The overall flavor is
sweet and tangy, with many complex layers of spice and an assertively piquant
background, and whole roasted peanuts providing a pleasant crunchy texture and
nutty taste. Sap's Special massaman has deeper flavor than most of the typical
versions, and is flat-out delicious. A highly recommended menu item.

REAL sweet and sour, with shrimp and tofu

When most folks think of sweet and sour sauce, they instantly get a mental
image of a psychedelic orange, ketchup-based, gloppy, thick, sauce that’s way
more sweet than sour. It’s the classic Americanized Chinese restaurant menu
mainstay, and the safe thing to order for your kids, especially if it comes on
fried chicken nuggets. True, the dish did originate in China, but as with all
Chinese dish imports into Thailand, the Thai version adopts that special Thai culinary
finesse, and avoids the pitfalls of Americanization. We ordered S-P28 with
shrimp, and added tofu, and it came out aromatic and steaming, with green beans, Asian eggplant,
onion, garlic, fresh pineapple, tomato, and cloud ear mushrooms. The sauce has
a mildly spicy edge, and is savory and sour, with just a hint of sweetness from
palm sugar. This is the sweet and sour stir fry that you always hoped you would
get at a Chinese restaurant, but made so much better here, Thai-style.

Stir fried bean sprouts

Another mild dish at Sap’s is one that slips under the menu radar for most
non-natives, S-P34. It is simple and light, but packed with flavor from fish sauce,
garlic, scallion, barely stir- fried, nutty tasting mung bean sprouts, and
whatever protein you selected (we went for chicken). This is a classic
homestyle Thai dish, that’s more subtle than the typical Thai flavor profile,
but just as delicious. We ordered Thai brown jasmine rice to go with the
entrees, and it is so much better tasting (and healthier) than the average
polished white jasmine rice. If you’ve never had it, you’re missing out.

Once again, we had a really delicious meal at Sap’s, and one that even R could
handle spice-wise. It’s proof that not all Thai dishes are spicy, and you don’t
need to fry your taste buds to enjoy a fantastic Thai meal.

for some background on Sriracha sauce, see here:http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2014-08-22/cock-of-the-walkhuy-fong-ruling-the-roostsriracha-alternatives-ruffling-feathers/

Naam
jiim Siracha:Siracha (Sriracha) sauce is a bottled table condiment
originally made in Si Racha, a coastal town just north of Pattaya (down the
coast, south of Bangkok). It's a reddish-orange sauce made from pureed and
aged-fermented ripe chiles, salt, vinegar, garlic, and sugar, which is used
especially with egg and noodle dishes. Thai brands are preferred, since they
have the true Thai taste, which balances sweet and sour with the heat (and
there are some Thai brands that also offer a mild version if you prefer less
heat). "Vietnamese" brands, such as the common Huy Fong (‘Rooster Brand') are
spicier, with more garlic, vinegar, and little sugar. Huy Fong, by the way, is
made in Los Angeles, from ripe jalapeños and garlic powder. ‘Sriracha Factory
Brand', ‘Grand Mountain', 'Shark Brand', and ‘Golden Mountain' (Sriraja
Panich) are all good Thai labels of a proper Thai Siracha sauce.

Originally
Siracha (Sriracha, Sriraja, Siraja) sauce was made with Thai yellow chiles (prik daeng), which many
feel results in a richer, deeper-flavored sauce. ‘Golden Mountain' brand still
produces a version made with these yellow chiles (which can range in color from
bright yellow to medium orange), although it is hard to find. Impossible to
find in the States. You'll recognize the lighter color of the sauce inside the
bottle, and if you ever find any on the shelf in your local market, you'd be
wise to stock-up. Siracha sauce is used especially for omelets (kai jaew),
for general-purpose spiciness with noodles, and grilled and deep-fried items, and,
only in the East, with lard na.

A
scene from a sauce factory near Chonburi, not too far north of Si Racha. These
cases hold oyster sauce. They wouldn't let me take pictures of the
sriracha sauce being made.